Plus, AstraZeneca is racing to adapt its COVID-19 vaccine after it was found that it offered little protection against the South African variant of the virus, Hyundai and Kia are down after the carmakers said they are not in talks with Apple to build an autonomous car, and Target shares are up after an upgrade.
Stocks were higher to start Monday with the Dow gaining 147 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq added 0.7%.
Bitcoin surged to a new all time high above $44,000 this morning after Tesla announced that it has invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency. In a filing with the SEC, the electric carmaker said that it bought bitcoin for “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash,” and added that it may invest a future portion of its assets in digital assets and that it will begin accepting bitcoin as payment for products “subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis.” “The world’s richest man allocating $1.5 billion of his company’s treasury to bitcoin speaks volumes about the magnitude at which crypto gains institutional adoption,” said Antoni Trenchev, managing director and co-founder of Nexo, referring to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “Tesla has now paved the way.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. could return to full employment in 2022 if Congress passes President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package. “There’s absolutely no reason why we should suffer through a long, slow recovery,” Yellen said. “I would expect that if this package is passed that we would get back to full employment next year. …We have people suffering…through absolutely no fault of their own. We have to get them to the other side and make sure that this doesn’t take a permanent toll on their lives.” Yellen also signaled that the Biden administration is hesitant to lower the income cap to $50,000 for the proposed $1,400 stimulus checks that are a part of the proposal. “If you think about an elementary school teacher or policeman making $60,000 a year, and faced with children who are out of school, and people who may have had to withdraw from the labor force in order to take care of them… [Biden] thinks, and I would certainly agree, that it’s appropriate for people there to get support,” Yellen added.”
AstraZeneca is racing to adapt its COVID-19 vaccine after a small-scale study found that it gave minimal protection against mild to moderate infection of the South African variant of the virus. Over the weekend, South Africa halted vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shots given the new data, and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the South African government would await advice from scientists on how best to proceed after the disappointing results. Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, which co-developed the vaccine with the drugmaker, said that “efforts are underway to develop a new generation of vaccines that will allow protection to be redirected to emerging variants as booster jabs, if it turns out that it is necessary to do so. We are working with AstraZeneca to optimize the pipeline required for a strain change should one become necessary. This is the same issue that is faced by all of the vaccine developers, and we will continue to monitor the emergency of new variants that arise in readiness for a future strain change.”
Hyundai and Kia shares are down this morning after both South Korean automakers shad they are not in talks with Apple to develop an autonomous vehicle, despite reports. “Hyundai Motor is getting requests from multiple companies for cooperation in joint development of autonomous, electric vehicles but nothing has been decided since it’s in early stage,” the company said. “Hyundai Motor is not in talks with Apple on autonomous vehicle development.” Kia Motors, a Hyundai affiliate, said that it was reviewing prospects of cooperating with “multiple companies overseas” over autonomous electric vehicles, but added that nothing has been decided and it is not in discussions with Apple.
And Target shares are up more than 2% this morning following an upgrade from Stifel analyst Mark Astrachan. Astrachan raised his rating on the stock from Hold to Buy and boosted his price target on the stock to $225 from $200. “We view the relative tendency of Target shoppers to be users of same-day fulfillment services positively for the retailer as indicative both of Target’s success in encouraging adoption of same-day services among existing customers and of the strength of the retailer’s omnichannel value proposition to potential customers,” Astrachan said. Also boosting Target shares this morning, the company said that its All in Motion activewear line that it launched last year has now reached $1 billion in sales.
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Bill.com Holdings Inc (NYSE: BILL): Bill.com shares surged as much as 36% on Friday after the provider of cloud-based financial software, delivered a massive earnings beat, including a 38% increase in revenue to $54 million. “We delivered strong financial results and record payment volume growth driven by robust demand for our platform and its expanded payment offerings,” said René Lacerte, Bill.com CEO. “Adoption and usage continues to strengthen in this new remote environment as we are effectively guiding companies on their digital transformation path. Our offering has become a mission-critical tool for many small and midsize businesses. The increasing scale of our platform purpose-built for SMBs is automating financial operations facilitating over ten billion dollars of B2B payments each month.”